It’s been a widely held believe, even before Ed Davis’ season ended last week because of a broken wrist, that North Carolina’s sophomore star would be leaving school for the NBA at the end of this season.

Under NCAA rules, a player become immediately ineligible if either he or his family enter into a written or verbal agreement to be represented by an agent, or if he or his family accept any kind of benefits from an agent or firm. If Davis has, in fact, signed with PTA and Porter, his college career would already be over.

But according to Porter, Davis’ family and UNC, the report is not true and Davis has yet to make a decision on where he’ll play next year.

“Obviously this is a mistake,” Porter said by phone Thursday afternoon. “I don’t know how it happened, but believe me we’re looking into it. While I have had some preliminary contact with the family (which is legal under NCAA rules), we have no committment either written or verbal from Ed Davis.”

“We have spoken to Ed and his family as well as the agency,” the statement said. “All parties have confirmed that there is no agreement for representation, either orally or in writing.”

And yet, Davis’ name and later picture still showed up on PTA Sports Management’s web site Thursday morning dentifying him as one of the firm’s clients — along with football players Markus Curry, Justin Fargas, Drew Henson, Ryan Kozey and David Terrell, and basketball players Herb Gibson and Ryan Sidney.

A click on Davis’ picture linked readers to short bio of the player. The picture and the bio have since been taken down.

Vincent Porter

When asked how he thought the information ended up on his company’s site, Porter suggested that it was the work of a hacker and said that his security people were “looking into” the problem. He also said he’s spent most of the day on the phone explaining what happened.

“I’ve probably had 100 calls, including Roy Williams, the Davis family and every newspaper and web site in America,” Porter said.

Though the explanation the agent has been giving all those callers is entirely plausible, especially given the state of the Internet these days, it still raises several questions, such as, if a hacker did decide to try to get either Davis or UNC in trouble by posting his name on an agent’s client list, why did he choose PTA Sports Management?

Could a PTA employee have misinterpeted Porter’s contact with the Davis family as a committment, and in his or her excitement, jumped the gun by posting it on the company’s web site? Or, for the more cynical out there among us, could Davis and Porter have already entered into an agreement that the agent chose to “leak” the news in an attempt to enhance his business and attract other top-name clients?

Terry Davis

According to Davis’ father, the whole thing is a big mistake.

Terry Davis, a former NBA player himself, told the Raleigh News & Observer that both he and his son were taken completely by surprise by Thursday’s controversy and reiterated the claim that Ed had not committed to an agent. In fact, he said he has gone out of his way to avoid talking to potential representatives for his son — though he did admit to speaking with Porter.

He added that his son still hasn’t decided whether to enter the draft or return to school next season. It’s a decision toat could end up being contingent on how long it takes him to fully recover from his current injury.

“We feel like with the injury, that’s something that has set him back as far as any plans to go to the NBA,” Terry Davis told the News & Observer. “With him not being able to shoot, it’s a 6-to-8 week thing [as far as healing], there’s no telling if he would be able to work out or anything [for NBA teams] this summer. … We’re just going to wait and see how it goes, but right now, we’re not even talking about the NBA.”

Ed Davis was leading the Tar Heels in rebounding at 9.2 per game and he ranked second on the team in scoring at 12.9 before breaking his wrist during the second half of last week’s loss to Duke.

Although UNC is struggling at 14-12 (3-8 in the ACC), Davis’ draft stock apparently remains high. The web site DraftExpress.com projects him as the fifth player taken this summer if he decides to turn pro.